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Druid tactic
= Basics = Tips *Shapeshifting will release you from Polymorph, Entangled Roots, Frost Nova and other spells that pin you. *Do not cast Wrath, Starfire or any spell to deal damage with casting time once close combat has started, as you'll be getting hit and raising the delay (a.k.a. lowering DPS). *If you are Tauren, and get into trouble, use Stomp. This can give you enough time to run, or start a Healing Touch on yourself. *Tie Rejuvenation and Regrowth to macros that automatically cast on yourself. *Cast your spells in "bursts". Your mana will not regenerate for 5 seconds after you cast a spell, regardless of whether or not you are in combat. It is more mana-effectient to cast several spells at the same time and then wait for your mana to regenerate than to cast single spells at various times during a fight. *Keep in mind that mana will regenerate while you are in a form. *Be prepared. Mark of the Wild and Thorns should be on all the time. *Thorns contributes to aggro and therefore should not be cast on cloth wearing classes. The same is true of druids acting as the main healer for a party. This makes it easier for the tank to draw the aggro away. This is also the reasons tanks should have Thorns at all times. *Be prepared. Keep a supply of various Alchemy potions and learn when you benefit from which. Attributes There is no set of attributes that is perfect for every situation. A druid can do most things and profit from all attributes. The best choice obviously is the one that enhances your play style. *Each point of Strength is worth 2 points of attack power. 14 points of attack power result in 1 addtional DPS. *Each point of Agility increases armor by 2, dodge and critical hit by 0.05% (at level 60). Also increases Attack Power in cat form by +1 per point of Agility. *Each point of Stamina is worth 10 health. *Each point of Intellect gives 15 mana and increases your chance for a critical spell 0.0173% (every 57.5 int = +1% critical chance). *Each point of Spirit increases your health and mana regeneration. About 5 points of Spirit gives 1 mana per second in regeneration. * Another point to note is that if a druid has the talent Heart of the Wild, that this talent increases your Intellect in all forms by 4%. In addition, while in Bear/Dire Bear Form your Stamina is increased by 4% and in Cat Form your Strength is increased by 4%. You can put up to 5 points into this talent to increase all the stats by up to 20%. Noteable spells and Abilities *Moonfire Moonfire is a great spell because it excels in two areas. The first is mana efficiency. Hitting a target with Moonfire will do a lot of damage over time for not too much mana. It is usually a good idea cast Moonfire on an enemy sometime during the beginning of a fight, to make sure all of the damage occurs. The second area Moonfire is great in is damage per second. Because the spell has no cooldown and does part of its damage on the initial cast, you can rack up quite a bit of damage by simply casting it over and over on a target. The downside to doing this is that the mana efficiency will plummet. You can easily drain your mana by spamming Moonfire. Many people consider it a beginner's strategy, but there are times when mana efficiency matters much less than raw damage per second. Moonfire is essentially two spells in one and a good druid will know when to use which version of it. *Regrowth Regrowth does a small, initial heal plus an equal amount over a few seconds. This is best used when you or a party member has dropped a little in health and will probably take a good bit more damage. This gives them an immediate boost to 90% or so HP and will keep their HP up for a while after even if they take a lot of damage. The Druid's Shape General *Attributes work just the same in feral form. *Weapon skill, damage, speed and chance on hit effects are irrelevant and have no effect in beast form. This includes temporary and permanent enchantments. Note that +crit% items do work. *Omen of Clarity now reduces the cost of the next rage/energy using ability to 0 (in addition to its effect on mana in caster form). *Look for weapon and offhand items that increase attributes or have other effects than chance on hit. *DPS is solely based on your attributes and form. *You will not receive skill advancement in any weapon proficiencies in beast form. *You will receive skill advancement in defense. *You will not be able to cast spells while in beast form. However current spells continue to work, eg Regrowth or Nature's Grasp. *Each form has a number of abilities and passive enhancements. (Dire) Bear Form Know how much mana you need for Bear form. If you have just used Entangled Roots before shapeshifting, cast Enrage to get enough Rage to cast Demoralizing Roar. Enrage will also give you enough Rage to cast Maul. Enrage is also very useful against players and monsters that primarily cast spells on you because the spells go right through armor anyway. Bear Form with good Stamina typically allows to engage and kill mobs up to 4 levels above you, albeit slowly. In Bear Form you receive *Attack power *An extra 180% of armor rating from items for a total of 280%. Armor rating from enchantments and agility is not multiplied. *Hit points (depending on level). In Dire Bear Form you receive *Attack power *An extra 360% of armor rating from items for a total of 460%. Armor rating from enchantments and agility is not multiplied. *Hit points (depending on level). Cat Form Cat form is most useful when used to initiate combat because you can do a lot of damage quickly, but it takes 10 seconds to fully recharge your energy. In Cat Form, you recieve a bonus to your Attack Power depending on your level, attributes and talents. # With full energy, Prowl up to your target from behind and use either ## Tiger's Fury and Ravage (for maximum damage) or ## Pounce and then Shred (for increased combo points) # Rake # If you are not the primary tank, use Cower. # Faerie Fire. # Wait for energy to reach at least 90, then cast Tiger's Fury. # Follow up with 2 Claw (if you are tanking) or 2 Shred (if you can move behind the mob). # Rip # Repeat from 2 until the mob is close to dying (20% health). At that point, spend whatever combo points and energy is left on a Ferocious Bite. This is especially important if you have warriors in your group, as they will Execute at this point. Please note that if you are level 60 and have a bit of gear that gives good Agility and Strength, you will get more damage per energy from Claw and Shred than Rake, so skip that part of the chain. Also note that Tiger's Fury will not break stealth, and it's damage is added before talents and abilities. At level 60, it will add 90 damage to your Claw attack. If you get in trouble: * Switch back to caster form. * If the mob is close to dying, spam Moonfire until the mob dies. * Outdoors: ** If you have Nature's Grasp, use it, allow the mob to hit you once, and then move back. ** If you're really bad on health, quaff a potion, then get Entangling Roots to hit before moving back. ** Heal. ** Switch back to Cat Form and wait. You want to have as much energy as possible before re-entering melee. * Indoors: ** If the mob is tough, use a potion. You'll die before you get Regrowth to finish casting. ** Barkskin ** Regrowth, then Rejuvenation. If your interruption rate isn't too bad, use Healing Touch to maximize your health. ** Switch back to Cat Form. If you have time to prepare, you can cast Regrowth, switch to Cat Form and Prowl up to your mob. When you reach maximum energy, you should still have about 8-10 seconds left of health regen. An alternative use of Cat form is to initiate a fight in caster form with Starfire and Moonfire (or a Entangling Roots-Wrath-Moonfire-Wrath sequence), cast Rejuvenation on yourself, and then shift to Cat form to melee. This conserves mana while keeping your health high. It is usually possible to solo an even level mob and end with 75% or more of both health and mana using this tactic. Travel Form Travel Form increases movement speed by 40%. This is very handy for running away from a fight. Try casting Rejuvenation before shifting to Travel Form. Aquatic Form Aquatic Form allows to breathe under water indefinitely. Movement speed while swimming is increased by 50%, however you will not be faster than a character on land. You cannot cast spells while in Aquatic Form, so it's useless for combat. Also be warned that Hunter pets are actually faster than you are in water. Feral Combat and the Elder Game There has been a lot of discussion about the role of the druid in the end game. Druids in the top-tier instances will primarily be called upon as healers and a lot of people expect druids to spec Restoration accordingly. This is similar to the limitations that most classes face in the high end instances (being boxed into a single role that is). Ultimately the choice of build is yours but don't expect to get away with hiding your talent tree (because the lack of the Innervate talent will be a dead giveaway). Feral druids in Dire Bear Form have a 360% bonus to armor (more with talents), and have a 1.3 to 1.45 damage-to-threat multiplier. In addition, Maul and Swipe has a multiplier of 1.75, so Druids in Dire Bear Form have no trouble maintaining Aggro. However, don't try to hold Aggro if you are Restoration spec and have mainly gear which gives you more Mana. Feral druids in Cat Form can get damage output close to that of equally equipped Rogues, but they lack an efficient way of reducing aggro. (No Vanish). Also note that Cat Form is very much dependant on gear, it's only the Strength and Agility which scales up your damage, so if you have to sacrifice that for fire resistance your DPS will be most unimpressive. What makes a druid so valuable is their emergency management ability. So, while you will not be called upon as a primary tank or damage-dealer, the joy of a druid is that if the main tank(s) go down you can get out there and take damage with the best of them and taunt mobs off the priest at least for a short while. If the damage-dealers are Feared and running for their lives, you can spam Moonfire or hit cat form and keep things going for a while. Druids also possess 3 highly desired abilities: *Innervate to regenerate mana for yourself or a party member quickly during a long fight *Mark of the Wild to provide what is arguably the best buff in the game *Combat resurrection while other classes can only resurrect outside of combat Strong healing abilities plus the ability to jump into any gap in your party's armor makes the druid a valued part of the team. If you go to an instance with a group or raid, you should bring at least 2 sets of gear so you can switch depending on the raid's needs. One for Healing mode, and one for Feral. Farming solo, druids are even more reliant on their forms and versatility. Many druids carry around multiple sets of armor, depending on form, to get the best stats for what they're doing. Outside of an instance, a druid is just as likely to be wearing his or her feral set (focusing on strength/stamina and to a lesser extent agility) as a mana set (intellect/stamina/spirit). = PvE = General PvE or Player vs Environment is the art of killing NPCs. The Lone Wolf Druids work well as a soloing class. Pull the enemy creature with a Wrath spell to draw them away from other creatures that would gang up on you. Learn the maximum distance of your Wrath spell, and be in the habit of casting from there. While the Wrath bolt is still traveling to the enemy, cast Moonfire. Follow this with Entangling Roots. Move back to the limit of your Wrath spell and repeat. You should be burning through your mana until you have just enough to switch to Bear form. If you are patient, you can tackle powerful creatures in this manner without endangering yourself. If you run out of mana while soloing a creature, Entangling Roots can save your life. Root the creature and then just stand back and wait for your mana to regenerate. Once you have enough mana, cast Entangling Roots again. If it is not resisted or immediately removed, heal yourself. Otherwise cast it again. Repeat the process. Entangling Roots does a small amount of damage. When you feel comfortable with your health vs the creatures health, move up and start hitting it with melee or save up mana for a Moonfire. You shouldn't have too much trouble finishing it off. Note: This trick might not work if your spirit is very low. Train up First Aid for healing between fights in order to save mana and maintain the highest efficiency. The Party Druid Usually you will be assigned a certain role in a group. If not, it is your job to decide how to best aid your group. But even when you are the maintank keep an eye open for an emergency that requires your other talents. *Buffer Parties love Druids for their buffs - Mark of the Wild and Thorns. This will always be an additional role you have to fill, make sure that you and your party are buffed. *Damage Dealer You can either be a melee DD with Cat Form or a ranged DD with spells. *Tank They can also take on the role of the tank or offtank - Bear Form required. For those unexperienced in tanking, a good general-purpose procedure for a Druid in Bear Form is: # Starting in caster form, cast Rejuvenation on yourself to offset damage in early combat. # Switch to Bear Form and aggro mob(s) any way you know how. # Use Bash and/or Feral Charge to interrupt enemy casters. # Let loose with a Demoralizing Roar. If you have it, also cast Faerie Fire (Feral) on at least the highest-level mob. # Use Swipe to hold aggro - or, in an emergency, use Challenging Roar (note the long cooldown). # Use Growl to regain aggro from mobs that decide to go after your party's cloth-wearers. # Use Maul to wear down a single target. # If the battle goes over 30 seconds, recast Demoralizing Roar and Faerie Fire (Feral). # After the battle, switch to caster form to heal yourself, and assist the main healer in healing the rest of the party. (You don't use but do regenerate mana while in Bear Form, so you might as well use it before entering combat.) *Healer In parties the Druid will often find himself in the role of the Healer. Whatever you do, keep a mana reserve for that emergency heal that will save your group. While you can be primary healer in a group, remember that you are always a backup healer. As the primary healer, Druids have three disadvantages over a Priest: ** The lack of an effective fast heal (i.e. Flash Heal). Regrowth is the druid equivelent, but because it is part straight heal and part heal over time, you will end up with horrible mana effeciency if you are forced to chain cast it on a party member. Keep this in mind and try to use Healing Touch wheneven possible. ** Druids have a utility ressurection spell. It is very useful in some situations. It can be used in combat, which means that with some coordination you can recover from a wipe. It also ressurects the target with much more health and mana and casts much faster than other ressurect spells. However, because it has a 30-minute cooldown, it cannot be used as the main ressurect spell. If two people die, you can only bring one back to life. ** Healing draws aggro to you. If you heal too much, or if you tank fails to get the attention of all the monsters, something will come after you. There are two ways of dealing with this and both required you to give up your ability to heal temporarily. The first is to switch into Bear form. This will allow you to soak up the damage from the monster(s) attacking you until your party deals with it. Second, you can switch into Cat form and use the Cower ability, which lowers the amount of threat towards a single target. Make sure your tank knows that you do not have a Fade-type ability that will allow you to escape aggro. In multiple monster situations, the tank should use an AoE ability (such as Demoralizing Shout or a Magma Totem), to attract all monsters' attention at the beginning of the fight. A third way of dealing with aggro is to use Entangling Roots on the monster and back away, but you cannot use the spell indoors (most instances). =PvP= General Druids are very versatile in combat and can therefore approach a fight in many difference ways. Healing is very tricky against a smart opponent or a class with spell interrupts. Know whether your opponent is melee or ranged. If melee, such as Warriors and Paladins, you can toy with them using the pull procedure outlined in Basic Tactics. If ranged, like spell casters and Hunters, cast Stomp, Moonfire, and then Entangling Roots. When your opponent has a few hits on you, Stomp if you have one left, Regrowth, Moonfire, switch to Bear form, profit. Spells and Tactics *Rooting: Entangling Root is essential both for keeping melee opponents at bay and making casters stay put so that you can attack them in Bear or Cat form. Be aware that there are many items and abilities that break root. If you rely too much on the spell, it will get you in trouble. *Kiting: Travel form (or Feline Swiftness) can be used to put distance between you and your enemy, which can be very useful while they are affected by DOTs (i.e. Moonfire, Rip). You can also use this tactic to run far enough away from them that they cannot catch up before you can get a heal off. *Talent Spells: **Nature's Grasp: (Tier 1 Balance) Gives a chance that when you are hit, the attacker will be affected by Entangling Roots. A very nice ability to have in your arsenal. It can mean the difference between life and death in combat. When playing against a melee class, cast Nature's Grasp. When it goes off, take a few paces back and heal yourself or run to your maximum range and start nuking. **Nature's Swiftness: (Tier 5 Restoration) Your next nature spell is instant cast. This is the only way you can get off a large heal without the risk of being interrupted. If you get it, it will likely save your life many times. **Feral Charge: (Tier 3 Feral) In bear form, you charge up to the target and interrupt any spell being cast. The ability to interrupt a spell at range is very useful. Feral Charge can also be used to get up to melee range when you are slowed or very far from your target. **Moonkin Form: (Tier 7 Balance) In Moonkin Form, you have the same armor as Dire Bear (Plate equivalent, 360% increase), and you have an increased 3% chance to critical with spells. Since you take MUCH less damage in this form, you can cast at close-range, and melee and wipe out mobs much quicker than normal. While soloing it's also not difficult to switch out and heal either, as shapeshifting is of small mana cost. Feel free to melee with your weapon as well, after all you do have Plate Armor in Moonkin Form. **Omen of Clarity: (Tier 3 Balance) If you plan on melee tactics in Moonkin Form, this talent is very good, as you have a chance on successful melee attack of having your next spell cost no mana at all. **Reflection: (Tier 3 Restoration) Even those who are Balance might want to consdier the 38/0/13 build, in which they have 15% mana regeneration while casting. For the Balance Druid that focuses on casting, this is just as important as having Omen of Clarity. *Healing. Things to remember: **Don't wait until the last moment to heal. Most players will be waiting for the right opportunity to use a big finishing move while you are low on health. Heal at every opportunity you get. You should not be defeated until you run completely out of mana, and even then you might be able to pull off a win. **Regrowth and Rejuvination at the same time will only cost you two seconds to cast and will continue to heal you well through the fight. **Regrowth is faster than Healing Touch. Use Regrowth in tight situations when you need a heal right away. Use Healing Touch when you actually have a few seconds to spare. Healing Touch's effect is more immediate and the spell is more mana effecient. **Healing Spells are generally more mana effecient than damage spells. *Debuff Removal: Rogues and Warlocks will use a lot of poisons and curses on you. It is generally a good idea to remove them as soon as you see them. Cure Poison and Remove Curse are cheap compared to many of the effects they remove. =See Also= *Druid: Working with Other Classes *Druid: How to Kill a... *Druid: How to Help a... ---- Category:Druids Category:Tactics